Wednesday, 7 May 2014

Broken interlock causes accident on glue rolling machine

Elite Composite Products Ltd., of County Durham firm was fined over £9000 (inc. costs) following a worker being caught in machinery with an ineffective guard.

The circumstances were:

The accident occurred on a glue rolling machine on 3 September 2012.

The rollers on this machine were guarded by an interlocked moveable guard.

There was no system in place to check interlocks.

The interlock had failed.

An employee lifted the guard to gain access to the rollers but as he started cleaning them his right hand was drawn into the rollers.

The HSE Inspector said:

“This incident could have been easily prevented if Elite Composite Products Ltd had systems in place to identify faults on the machinery and its safety systems. Had this been the case, the broken safety device would have been spotted and the company could have repaired it to ensure that workers did not come into contact with the dangerous moving machine parts. Instead, the firm’s failures mean a worker has suffered severe, life-changing injuries.”